Texas seeks emergency block on abortion ruling

Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rally in the State Capitol rotunda in Austin, Texas on Friday, July 12, 2013. / AP Photo/Tamir Kalifa

AUSTIN — Attorney General Greg Abbott has asked a federal appeals court to rule by tonight to temporarily block a Monday decision from an Austin judge that tossed out a portion of Texas’ new abortion law.

Abbott filed an emergency stay Tuesday with the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel’s ruling to strike down a law requiring doctors to have hospital admitting privileges within 30 miles of where they perform abortions. Abbott already filed a notice to appeal Monday, about an hour after the ruling was issued.

The regulation was set to go into effect Tuesday, and Texas is seeking to implement it immediately by asking for a stay while the case goes through the appeals process. The state also asked the court to expedite its appeal for hearing in January.

In its filing, Abbott’s legal team said “there is no evidence — and no findings in the district court’s opinion—that any woman will face any obstacles to obtaining an abortion if the law takes effect.”

“A stay that allows HB 2 to take effect will not substantially injure abortion patients,” state lawyers wrote.

After a three-day trial in Austin last week, Yeakel ruled Monday the admitting privilege restriction is unconstitutional, saying it poses an undue burden on women seeking and has no “rational relationship to improved patient care.

The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed last month by Planned Parenthood, the Center for Reproductive Rights and the American Civil Liberties Union.

Texas’ Tuesday motion in the federal appeals court also requests a stay on a ruling by Yeakel to partially block new restrictions on pregnancy-ending drugs, saying the exceptions are “overbroad and unnecessary.” Yeakel upheld new restrictions on pregnancy-ending drugs but said they could not be enforced in certain situations when a doctor determines that the mother’s health is at risk.

Nancy Northup, president and CEO at the Center for Reproductive Rights said in a statement that the “state’s appeal can only be seen as a measure of the extreme animosity of anti-choice Texas politicians toward the health and rights of women in their state.”

“We hope the court will continue to keep this harmful provision blocked through the course of this appeal,” she said, “and carefully consider the devastating and immediate impact this restriction would have on Texas women.”